I’ve
always loved to scour junk shops and car boot sales for treasures.
These days, with all the design blogs I read, I’ve become pretty savvy
about what I see and what’s worth having, but I think the things I
treasure most are the funny bits and pieces that turned out to be
treasures.

I bought these two West German ceramic jugs from my favourite
carboot sale, Milnerton Market. I almost didn’t take them, because they
reminded me of a rather scary childhood house belonging to a friend of
my mom’s. But their elegant forms and lovely colours convinced me to
take them home with me, and put them in a special spot in the sitting
room. Then, a lot later, through the H is for Home blog, I discovered that West German ceramics are highly collectable, and suddenly my funny jugs become rather fancy!

One day I was browsing through the newspaper, when I spotted an
advert for a travelling prints show at the Irma Stern Gallery. I fell
in love with the tiny black and white picture in the ad, and raced over
to see the show. The woodblock print was even better in colour, and as
it was near my birthday, I decided I would buy it as a treat for
myself, spending more than I possibly should have. I loved it so much
that I wrote to the artist, Angela Lewin, and got a very sweet note in response. It was some time after this that Angie Lewin’s work
started appearing all over the place, on fabrics and notecards, and
suddenly my funny little beloved print became a whole lot more
valuable!

Hi and welcome to Bloesem! My name is Irene Hoofs and I started this journal in 2006 wanting to share my passion for design, art and craft with you. New to Bloesem? Here are my 10 favorite posts to get you started. Or would you like to see the necklaces I make?